{"id":44,"date":"2010-11-27T22:20:44","date_gmt":"2010-11-27T22:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/communipartner.com\/?p=44"},"modified":"2010-11-27T22:20:44","modified_gmt":"2010-11-27T22:20:44","slug":"for-smiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communipartner.com\/?p=44","title":{"rendered":"For Smiles"},"content":{"rendered":"

(This Article originally appeared in Scope, <\/em>the news magazine of Loma Linda University, Fall 2006 edition)
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Harvest is an 11-year old boy in Nigeria. He\u2019s teased at school and his father left him and his mother\u2014all because of his cleft lip and palate. Harvest is just one of an estimated 360,000 people in Africa born with clefts. That\u2019s why Loma Linda University, Adventist Health International (AHI), and the Smile Train\u2014a nonprofit organization that is committed to eradicating the problem of cleft lips and palates went on board to help children who face this problem. From February 13 to 15, 2006, LLU, AHI, and the Smile Train sponsored the first ever Pan-African Congress on Cleft Lip and Palate. About 150 health professionals from 12 different countries in Africa participated in the conference held in Ibadan, Nigeria. \u201cLoma Linda University and Adventist Health International were delighted to be partners in this worthy endeavor,\u201d shares Richard Hart, MD, DrPH, chancellor of LLU and president of AHI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Smile Train is working hard to expand our programs throughout Africa,\u201d says president and co-founder Brian Mullaney. \u201cOverall, we plan to train hundreds of surgeons and operate on thousands of children in the coming year.\u201d According to Smile Train\u2019s vice president, DeLois Greenwood, the Smile Train only helped 500 children in Africa out of the 35,000 they have helped worldwide last year. \u201cWhen we wanted to expand our programs in Africa and met with Dr. Hart,\u201d explains Ms. Greenwood, \u201cwe realized that LLU and AHI might be our spark that helps us reach the medical professionals because they have the network, resources, and reputation. And I dare say, had it just been the Smile Train, participants may not have come. But the fact there\u2019s an affiliation with such a famous institution, the surgeons were quite interested.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo organize a conference in Africa is no small feat,\u201d explains Dr. Hart. \u201cWe are particularly blessed with two people who helped put this together. Dr. Linda D\u2019Antonio and Tomi Daniel were absolutely essential.\u201d Linda D\u2019Antonio, PhD, professor, School of Medicine, is a speech pathologist and a member of the medical advisory board of the Smile Train. Tomi Daniel, BL, a lawyer in Nigeria and wife of Danjuma Daniel, business manager of AHI\u2013Nigeria, volunteered her time to help plan the event.<\/p>\n

Last year, Dr. D\u2019Antonio and Ms. Daniel met at an AHI meeting in Loma Linda. Dr. D\u2019Antonio explained to Ms. Daniel how she was told clefts didn\u2019t exist in Nigeria. So Ms. Daniel gladly accepted photos of children before and after they had their cleft repaired. She took them back to Nigeria and showed the photos around town, asking if they knew anyone with this problem. The result was overwhelming. Ms. Daniel found numerous people with clefts. During her search, Ms. Daniel learned that the word used for cleft in her region of Nigeria is chuandaji, meaning wild disease, something that cannot be cured.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTaking the photos around restored hope,\u201d shares Ms. Daniel. \u201cIt showed that clefts are not hopeless. It was a privilege to be a part of restoration for someone\u2019s life.\u201d After discovering the problem with clefts in Nigeria, the next step involved several months of intense planning for the first ever Pan African Congress on Cleft Lip and Palate (PACCLIP). PACCLIP was deemed a huge success and throughout the course of three days, about 150 health professionals participated in lectures, interactive seminars, and surgical videotaped demonstrations in order to establish a sustainable cleft care program in Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were so excited and so surprised on the first day when they asked people to stay and form the Nigerian Cleft Lip and Palate Association,\u201d says Dr. D\u2019Antonio. \u201cIn my wildest dreams, I couldn\u2019t imagine the excitement and joy of watching this unfold in front of me. \u201cOn the last day of the meeting, they didn\u2019t want to leave. So they had an impromptu meeting and what was born was the Pan African Cleft Lip and Palate Association. That will be a high in my career that will be very hard to ever top. Smile Train, Loma Linda University, and Adventist Health International can be very proud of the stepping-stone that they provided that resulted in this association for the continent.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI believe that the formation of that association is perhaps the greatest legacy of this meeting and the support from the three sponsoring organizations,\u201d adds Dr. D\u2019Antonio. The goals of the conference were to: identify existing cleft care providers and programs within Africa; make available a platform for those already providing cleft care in Africa to network and share their experience; raise public awareness about cleft lip and palate and to inform the public that cleft lip and palate can be surgically corrected; and to provide education and training for surgeons regarding the care of children with cleft lip and palate.<\/p>\n

The 2006 Pan African Congress on Cleft Lip and Palate led to Smile Train\u2019s request\u2014that AHI and LLU plan and organize two more meetings within Africa in 2006-2007. In return, Smile Train would sponsor the finances of the meeting. \u201cOne of the outcomes of PACCLIP,\u201d shares Dr. D\u2019Antonio, main organizer of the event, \u201cwas the development of a small but extremely helpful network of surgeons who have continued over the year to provide valuable information regarding the challenges and solutions for increasing cleft care in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

These surgeons have expressed repeatedly that the challenges for providing cleft care in Africa are unique and therefore require \u201cAfrican specific\u201d solutions in order to build Smile Train partnerships. Because of that, Dr. D\u2019Antonio planned the Smile Train Consensus Conference on Strategies for Increasing Cleft Care in Africa. Held in Nairobi, Kenya, from September 27 to 28, the purpose of the conference was to invite these surgeons and other key stakeholders \u201cto tap into their wisdom about local problems and local solutions to increase cleft care,\u201d explains Dr. D\u2019Antonio.<\/p>\n

Thirty-six participants from across sub-Saharan Africa attended the conference. The first day of the conference included an environment scan where participants discussed where cleft providers previously were, where they currently are, and where they are going. Then they talked about the trend analysis. For example, attendees concluded that they went from awareness of needs to capacity building, from solo care to team care, from neglect to awareness, etc. Other discussions included strategies that are for African solutions to increase cleft care. Strategies included: 1) developing funding models that enhance capacity building, 2) capacity building for improved cleft care, 3) building a network and encouraging researchers in cleft lip and palate, 4) establishing standard treatment protocols as an aid to auditing, hence improved quality, and 5) improved level of awareness of cleft care.<\/p>\n

Dr. D\u2019Antonio noted that it would be easy to send one team to provide cleft care for a couple of weeks in Africa for the same amount of money that was used to empower the participants of this conference. \u201cThis time, however, we developed partners and solutions that will impact the whole entire continent,\u201d she says. \u201cNow participants will be the teachers and light the fires in the bellies of the next generation of cleft surgeons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Themba Nyirenda, DDS, an oral surgeon in Malawi, says, \u201cIt is pleasing to note that Africa has a wealth of talent, which once properly harnessed, will achieve lasting solutions to our cause. At this point and time, we cannot afford to be complacent. We need to build up, not down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next step is PACCLIP 2007, to be held in February in Ibadan, Nigeria. Thanks to LLU, AHI, and the Smile Train, 11-year-old Harvest and many other children will get their clefts repaired\u2014defeating chuandaji, the \u201cwild disease.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This Article originally appeared in Scope, the news magazine of Loma Linda University, Fall 2006 edition) Harvest is an 11-year old boy in Nigeria. He\u2019s teased at school and his father left him and his mother\u2014all because of his cleft lip and palate. Harvest is just one of an estimated 360,000 people in Africa born […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internationalwork"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communipartner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communipartner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communipartner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communipartner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communipartner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/communipartner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45,"href":"https:\/\/communipartner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communipartner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communipartner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communipartner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}